Tag: movie

  • Movie Time – Feb/ Mar 2013

    The last two months were quick if anything. I can’t believe that we are already in the fourth month of this year. It feels like the year had just started.

    With all the work, there has been little time to catch up on movie, but nevertheless I got a new TV with a corner mount installation, so I did manage to catch up on quite a few and here they are:

    • Viswaroop
    Kamal Hassan, this one name is enough for this movie to deserve a watch and add all the controversy it got dragged into, it totally deserved my attention. Complete credit to Kamal for being honest to the subject and for the detailed research that he has undertaken. He has also managed to break out of the clichés. Rahul Bose was another attraction to the movie, overall making it a deserving watch.
    8/10

    • Midnight’s children
    Have heard a lot about the book and Salman Rushdie did manage to create quiet an interest into the movie. The movie was at its poetic best and in spite of it being a difficult plot, Deepa Mehta has done a fine job of giving it life on the celluloid. The dichotomies of life, and the history of India from independence to the 70’s is magically wound with the story. Again, worth a watch, due to the sheer poetry involved.
    7/10

    • David
    I went to this movie with low expectations and it completely surprised me. Three different plots, three different eras, three different protagonists and the only common thread – the Name, David. The director, Bejoy Nambiar, manages to maintain the interest till the end and the music adds to the value.
    8/10

    • Special 26
    After coming to know that it is a true story, I first goggled up the original case of the 80’s. In spite of everyone knowing the story, the director has done a fine job of maintaining the suspense till the end. Neeraj Pandey, has justified himself, after his first film “A Wednesday”, as a filmmaker with finesse.
    8/10

    • Murder 3
    The lesser spoken about the movie the better it is. What are the Bhatts thinking, take some old foreign movie, make a lazy adaptation, add some skin show and sleaze and here you are with the next series in their Murder, Jism, Raaz stable. This one does not deserve a mention here at all.
    4/10

    • Kai Po Che
    This is probably one of the most pleasant movies this year. Adapting a story (not that great as a book!) Into a celluloid version is tough and Abhishek Kapoor has done it with complete love and attention as can be seen on the screen. Right from the screenplay, to the casting, everything seems just perfect. Also having only 3 wonderful songs helped carry forward the movie without any hindrance. If you have not yet seen this movie, go catch it immediately.
    9/10

    • I,Me aur main
    A new coming of age movie, or that is what it promised to be. A charismatic, good looking guy who is full of himself, lives in with his beautiful girlfriend and is then ditched by her due to his irresponsibility. He then falls in love with his neighbor and the classical question rises? Again, don’t waste your time on this one, like I did.
    5/10

    • Saheb Biwi aur Gangster returns
    After the first part, the sequel deserved a watch. And it completely lives up to it. Mahie Gill, somehow manages to act wonderfully in this particular series and Irrfan Khan just takes the tempo higher. The film right from the beginning is an engaging watch.
    7/10

    • Mere Dad Ki Maruti
    This is the chic lit equivalent of literature. This seems to have become the new genre for yash Raj films, that they have actually launched a subsidiary, Y-Films for such low budget movies. Should admit though, the two odd hours in the theatre were a laugh riot. The reason for that was the Punjabi clichés shown in the movie? Or the perfect timing by the actors, primarily Ram Kapoor? How does it matter??
    6/10

    • SEINFELD SEASON 2
    Again, outrightly funny. A must watch with repeat runs.
    9.5/10

  • Movie Review – Jan 2013

    January was on hectic fun month. I was out of Mumbai for nearly 16 days out of the total 31 days of the month. I have been travelling like crazy, across the country, from Delhi to Rajasthan to Hrishikesh/ Haridwar.

    Well, amidst all this I did manage to catch up with a couple of movies and TV series. Travel is the best time I tell you.

    • Matru ki bijlee ka Mandola

    Directed by Vishal Bharadwaj and Anushka as the lead actor, I just had to see this one. And I was not disappointed completely. A political satire on land grabbing and the nexus between the Rich ( very well played by Pankaj Kapur) and the politicians, it was outrightly humorous since the beginning. Completely watchable. Well, Imran Khan was passable.

    6.5/10

    • Inkaar

    The first time I saw the print ad of the film in Economic Times, it did raise my curiosity. A hindi film having a full page colour ad in a business newspaper is new. The film was a lot of hype and no substance. A delicate subject of harassment at Workplace could have been dealt in much detail, but it is rather turned into a romantic film by Sudhir Mishra. Can be missed, unless you want a sneak peak into the stereotypical advertising world.

    5/10

    • SVSC

    Though it is been near to six years that I have left Andhra, I have been pretty much updated with Tollywood (Thank you bro!). I have been a complete telugu movie buff and this one has Venkatesh and Mahesh Babu in one film. Do I say more? WATCH IT.

    9/10

    • SEINFELD SEASON 1

    Started watching a couple of episodes late night on Star World and realized it has been lying on my Campus Hard Disk from long. I immediately downloaded it upon my IPAD and now it has become my best companion during travel waiting. Outrightly funny. Should watch.

    9.5/10

    • Game of Thrones season 1 and 2

    I got hold of the high definition version of this series through a friend in Delhi. Though I am not much into fantasy, this one did manage to catch my attention after a couple of episodes. The author manages to create a completely imaginary world, filled with life like characters and everyone battling for the coveted throne. The photography is just mind-blowing, and the war scenes remind one of LOTR. Now, waiting for the Season 3 to start. You can also check out this site for additional information about Game of Thrones.

    8/10

  • Love marriage in India

    This has been happening for quite sometime. Wake up in the morning, log on to your facebook and you see one more notification of someone getting engaged, someone getting married, someone getting laid! (Probably mark should add this functionality too!).

    And obviously so, this is the marriage season on in india, and I belong to this group or this age, where people do generally get married. So, it is nothing but obvious that my friends are all getting hooked.

    Interacting with many of these recently married, or soon to be married couples, gives me one good insight. Get an arranged marriage, and it is just an affair. Dare an affair, and there are lots of things to be arranged. The biggest of them all, convincing parents.

    More the differences, more time consuming it is.

    1. Different caste?

    The most common problem. Everyone, right from the mom and dad, to the door ka uncle, whom you meet only during weddings, and also the kaam wali bai, who needs to know why are you getting married to someone outside your caste. Understandable if you are a parsi, and your community population is dwindling, but not otherwise, they say.

    A reddy girl, cannot marry a choudhary guy. Final. Why? Both the families celebrate the same set of festivals, have similar rituals, follow similar traditions, and even look quite similar. So why? You may ask? A No, is a NO! unless you want your limbs cut off, by one of our factionist brothers from Telangana. (Anyways, the nosed man is not very active these days!)

    2. Different language?

    Again a big obstacle, and a very common one! Come on now, India has about a 1000 languages ( 18 official languages), and liberalization has allowed us to travel across the country. It is obvious that a Tam-Brahm girl would fall in love with a Punju guy ( remember 2 States, by Chetan Bhagat), or a rajasthani girl being pataaofied by a mallu guy! But well, parents on either side would sure be dead against it. Why? Dude, you want your father to be able to atleast communicate to your father in law!

    Living in both Chennai, and Delhi, the difference in life style could not get more starker. They could have been two completely different countries all together. Iraq and America would have more similarities, in every walk of life!

    How do you convince you parents? Show them the beauty of multi cultural interaction, and tell your punju father how it is very important to be learning to save more money from your Tamilian filter coffee drinking, Hindu paper reading father in law!

    3. Different religion?

    All hell breaks lose! WHY? Why? And after many more doubts on proper downloads of sanskar, the mother still asks WHY? Why on earth you, a pious Brahmin boy, who does not eat good things like chicken and mutton at home (and hogs the same like a pig in a hotel with beer!) want to get married to a muslim girl? WHY?

    In this case, the occasional kashmira shawl sales man also needs to be convinced. After all, a muslim girl is going to come next to buy his shawls.

    Remember Veer-Jaara, convince your parents that you are doing all this in for the betterment of the Indian society, and to ensure cross-cultural exposure to your kids! Or maybe, you can just tell them, it is necessary like IIPM has a necessary international exposure!

    Beware, they might just slam you back with Sonia Gandhi’s example, and try showing you logic that only if Rajiv Gandhi had married a hindu girl, the country would have been a lot better now! No Italian dope to the dying BJP!( yeah, and who know, No Bofors case for the CBI. No Q)

    4. Rich – poor divide?

    Now this is a very serious difference.  How can a Raja bhoj, let his daughter get married to a gangu telli? Remember Dulhe Raja? But well, the dulha needs to be determined, and push his way through to the riches and the coffins of his soon-to-be father in law. Whatever it takes.

    This particularly reminds me of a friend, Raju, who recently had to meet his rich girl’s parents to convince them for their marriage. After the initial pleasantries, the soon-to-be father in law (FIL) guided Raju to the study room to get to know him better.

    “So, Raju, What are your plans?” FIL asks Raju

    “I’m an software engineer at Acer, working for the last four years.”, raju replied sheepishly knowing very well that his meager salary of 3.3 lakhs per annum was less than FIL’s daily income.

    “Well, that’s admirable” FIL replied. “But what will you do to provide a nice house for my daughter?”

    “I will work hard, and God will surely provide for us” Raju explained.

    “And how will you buy her a nice engagement ring?”

    “I will work hard, and God will provide for us”

    “And children?” asked the father.  “How will you support children?”

    “Not a worry, sir, God will provide” replied Raju non-chalantly.

    The conversation continued for about 10 more minutes in much the same fashion.

    After Raju left, his girl asked her father what did he feel of Raju?

    “Well, he has no sound job, income and no plans either”, he despairs with the girl looking at him with tension written all across her face.

    “But, the good news is that he thinks I’m God”

    “You can marry him!”, egoistically.

    They are now getting married in June.

    This brings me to the next divide, EGO!

    5. Ego clashes?

    Mohabbatein! If you remember seeing the SRK romantic movie of early 2000’s, you would realize that there is no solid reason for the father Amitabh bacchhan to reject SRK’s candidature. ( This is what marriages have become, one more job opening!). It was just his ego, that he could not let go!

    I wonder, why are most of the parents against the overall concept of a love marriage? I know of a friend, who loved a girl from his same caste, and everything. If he would have applied for an arranged marriage, a good possibility that his parents could have selected the same girl! But they were against this alliance? Surprising!

    It is more to do with the inherent right that parent seem to be losing than anything else. At the birth of a child itself, the parent takes this ordeal of selecting a bride for their son, as their inate right. Now when you, the son, gets a girl on your own, your are stealing them of this right, and they do not want that.

    No parent would accept this, but this seems to be the inherent truth!

    Again, here, persistence is the only way guys!

    6. Age difference?

    Guy elder to girl by any number of years, still okay! Girl elder to guy? Unpardonable. It is an age old custom without any sound logic. In the olden days, it was considered normal for the guy to be atleast 10 years elder to the girl.

    In the good olden days, the men fought wars, while the women filled bindis of water from far off places. In this milieu, it was necessary that the guy crosses a certain threshold of age to get married, and parents of girls have always been desperate to get their daughters married off as quickly as possible.

    A recent study says, that girls tend to age more quickly than guys, and thus to maintain compatibility and also to ensure that the couple looks good together it was necessary that the girl is younger to her husband. A different study also says that women have an average life expectancy atleast 5 years more then men. By this logic,  to avoid the woman from spending more years as a widow, she should be allowed to marry grooms five years younger to her, to ensure death at the same time.

    Ultimately, whatever your parents give as a reason for this, there is no way in which you can overcome this. The girl, if elder to you, is always going to remain so, and the only way to overcome this is to die hard convince your parents.

    I personally think, this norm that guys should be elder to their wives, stem from the inherent need of every male to be dominating, and ensuring younger wife gave them a free license to do this!

    And if this was not enough, Let me remind you that God’s wife is elder to him! (er! Sachin Tendulkar)

    7. Boy – Boy?

    This is something that is very much in fashion of late, and the Indian constitution has recently also legalized it. Now this is one case, where the issue stems due to the lack of a difference, unlike the remaining reason where the issue is due the reasons. Now the basic reason for this issue,  is lack of awareness and an inherent tendency against change that each of us have it within. You father would say, “You marrying a boy? Which boy gets married to a boy? I have not seen anyone being happy after doing this!”

    Probably, our generation, after seeing many a happy gay couples would allow our children to pursue the sexuality and the orientation of their choice!

    Whatever be the reason guys ( and girls!), if the voice within you shouts that yes, “She is the one! She is the one!” No reason or difference( or maybe the lack of it) should stop you from relentlessly pursuing it. Nothing on earth can come between us should be the motto, and watch titanic to gather inspiration.

    Okay! Need more inspiration? Watch any hindi movie, and this would be the theme plot. Want more realistic inspiration? Watch a telugu movie, sans the fights!

    This post is dedicated to Srinivas Jarkula, who is getting married this Sunday in the district capital of KHAMMAM! (Well, it is some obscure place in Andhra!) Wish you guys a very very happy married life!

  • >Demi God Stars of South india

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    As such it is, there are a pretty many crazy things that happen in india, and there are a lot many takers for entertainment ( read movies). There is something very peculiar with the south indians, and the god level status accorded to the movie stars here.

    The kind of feeling and respect that the south indians have on their stars is mind boggling, and the space movie stars occupy in the minds of people in the south is something truly out of this world.

    Chiranjeevi  is a God like figure in Andhra. So much that people die in the quest to get tickets for his movies. People have been so mesmerized by the actor, that the patronage now extends to his brother, nephew, son( all actors), and father in law( producer). I doubt, if the fan following will not be extended even to his dog, who might feature as the main cast in a forthcoming movie.

    The Late Rajkumar or the late Vishnu Vardhan in Karnataka enjoy a similar status. I was in bangalore last december when Vishnu vardhan expired due to completely natural circumstances. In spite of the complete natural form of death, Bangalore, and the whole of karnataka was brought to stand still for a day to mourn for the actor. We need not dwell about the time when rajkumar was kidnapped by Veerappan.

    Coming now to tamil nadu, and there is only one God here – RajiniKanth. His legend is long lived, and his fan following extends far east even to the funny looking japanese. He is creating waves presently in entire tamil land, with the release of his new movie – Endhiran ( Robot in Hindi). We have been hearing abou crazy stuff people dole out for their stars, and how a song is released before the whole cassette is released to capitalize on the craze.

    Rajini has gone a step further. He has released the trailer of the movie in the theatres before the movie releasing.

    WTF!!

  • >FB Movie

    >Just about a week back, i had spoken here about the movie on Facebook, and the general rise of the social networking behemoth called FACEBOOK.

    Now i get to hear from ibnlive.in, about not one but two movies being made on the website. Now this is some achievement.

    The Social network traces the birth and the coming of Facebook, Catfish is a documentary talking about what possibly could happen with the increased usage of FB.

    Being a web enthusiast myself, these two movies come under my must-watch films this season. Would sure be an interesting watch.